Fluke's sixth album, released on September 27, 1997.
Quite different when compared to their previous album - more instrumentals, harder songs and edgier lyrics. I don't like it as much as Six wheels on my wagon, which isn't to say that it's a bad album, but it loses energy too quickly. Moving one of the first two tracks down into the middle of the album probably would have fixed this somewhat.
Compare and contrast to Underworld's Beaucoup Fish, released two years later.
- Absurd
"downtown minnie mouse is slapping mickey in the famous crowds while big bird spreads the word - anybody with a heart votes love."
The opener, and the other famous song from the album. Starts off with thumping bass beats and a woman moaning, before upping the tempo and bringing the rest of the instruments into play. The lyrics make absolutely no sense, except in an Underworld streamofconciousness sort of way. This is another one of those "better with vocoders" songs.
- Atom bomb (atomix 1) 1
"baby's havin' too much fun, she got a shit kickin' motherfuckin' atom bomb!"
The song that really got Fluke noticed by the masses. Played continuously pretty much everywhere during 1996, made it onto a couple of soundtracks and into at least one game. Hard, fast, edgy techno, danceable, and with great lyrics about a cute, megalomanical girl just trying to take over the world and have some fun doing it. The video clip mixes the WipEout 2097 intro movie, in-game footage, some quick shots of Rachel Stewart dressed up as Arial Tetsuo, and a short anime sequence involving a lot of blood. I'm sure the only reason they picked 2097 was because it had just been released - Arial Tetsuo is from the first WipEout game.
Fluke apparently got into some trouble playing this live on BBC Radio 1 by singing the above lyrics for 24 straight bars.
- Kitten moon
Oooh, pseudo-trance! And dreamy, heavy pseudo-trance at that. Even though it's not one of the more famous songs on the album, it probably should be. Gets fast towards the middle of the track, probably breaking the "trance" thing, but I'm not all that great with genres anyway.
Oh, and it's the second longest song Fluke have done. Now you know.2
- Tosh (mosh) 3
Surprisingly, this isn't punk or metal. In fact, it's more of a buzzy dance/trance beat than anything else. You could mosh to it, but you'd look pretty damn stupid.
- Bermuda
"i am drowned out by the roar floating back up from the shore. it is wonderful."
Another synth and piano number, feeling a lot like something out of Oto.
- Setback 4
"i swear, all i could see was ruins for miles and miles..."
The intro part before the breakbeat kicks in reminds me of tolling church bells, for some reason.
More Underworld-style lyrics, and a sort of ambient background to go with the beats (although, there's some bleeps that make me think of CoLD SToRAGE).
- Amp
Similar to Setback, but without the vocals and more bouncy. Not too much to say about this one, really.
- Absurd (reeferendrum) 5
Is it just me, or are Fluke the only ones who're any damn good at remixing their own tracks? Don't give me any of that "Born Slippy vs. Born Slippy.NUXX" crap - this track sounds absolutely nothing like the original. It's mostly heavy drum beats with a soaring, twinkly piano and harp line.
It's also the 10th track on the Sasha/Digweed mix album Northern Exposure 2: East Coast Edition, albeit slowed down a little.
- Squirt 6
"quick, quiet, confident. comfortable, permanent. undisputed, every tense. not a trace of what went left."
Yet another breakbeat number with a swelling synth-line. The lyrics really make this one stand out; they're not like anything else on the album, and Jon Fugler really doesn't sound like himself. Nice track, though, and the single has some excellent remixes.
- Goodnight lover
Ambience. Bells. Guitar. Progressive backbeat. Wind off the bells and up the guitar and backbeat. Add in a synth-violin noise until it sounds like something from a James Bond movie. Not a bad closer, and the lack of lyrics winds down nicely from the previous track.
Fluke had some help from Steve Dub on this track - he's the guy who engineers all the Chemical Brothers albums.
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1 Unlabeled.
2 That would be the Untitled no. 3 of Slap it, if you're wondering.
3 Labeled as "Mosh".
4 Remix, unlabeled.
5 Labeled as "Reeferendrum".
6 Remix, unlabeled.